Production of steel containing titanium.



No. 822,305. PATENTED JUNE 5, 1906 A. LROSSI.

PRODUCTION OF STEEL CONTAINING TITANIUM.

1 AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA 20,1902. 7

mass.

NITE STATES AUGUSTE ROSSI, OF NEW YORK,

PATENT EEIQE.

N. Y., ASSIGNOR, BY manor AND MESNE ASSIGNMENTS, OF FORTY-TVVO AND ONE-HALF ONE-HUN- DREDTHS TO JAMES MACNAUGHTON, OF TAI-IAWUS, NEW YORK, AND FIFTEEN ON E-HUN DREDTH S TO PHILIP O. PEEK, OF NEW YORK,-

N. Y. NAUGHTON, DECEASED.

F'RODUCTION OF STEEL CONTAINING TITANIUM.

Specification of Letters Patent.

' Patented June. 5, 1906.

Application filed May 20, 1902. serial No- 108.277.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, AUGUsrE J. RossI, a citizen of the United States, and a resident of the borough of Manhattan, city, county, and State of New York," have invented a certain new and useful Process for the Production of Steel Containing Titanium, of which the following is a speclfication.

My present invention relates to the production of steel containing titanium from cast or pig iron in a so-called electric furnace.

The object of my present invention is to produce a process whereby steel containing a desired proportion of titanium may be .manufactured with requisite economy on an industrial scale, so as that it shall invariably contain only a definite, controllable, and intended percentage of carbon and likewise of titanium, the latter being not less than, say, two nor more than five per centum of the I have secured this object by my said invention of the following process,'in which I have used a so-called electric furnace, the details of construction and the operation of which are well understood. For the sake of I ient manneras, for instance, through the ap cle arness I have, however, shown in the accom panying drawing one form of such furnace adapted to the practice of my present process, said drawing comprising avertical central sectional view of the furnace proper and its connections and a view in elevation of the movable electrode and its connections.

Referring to said sectional view of the furnace, B represents the base, constructed of material possessing electrical conductivity,

'self to the particular form of furnace shown preferably graphite, and constituting the floor of the hearth or crucible. B B represent a vertical lining or wall of similar material, the saidfloor and wall combining to make up a crucible possessing electrical conductivity. Said crucible is inclosed by a supporting-wall C C of any material sufiiciently refractory to withstand the high temperature developed and having no electrical conductivity: D D represent a cover, which may .or not be utilized, according to the specia requirement of each case of the application of .my said process. M and S are tap-holes, respectively, for

the molten metal and for the slag, which are plugged and unplugged, according to reqlgirement, as is well understood by those s 'lled in the practice of the art. G is a gasvent adapted to secure when required the requisite escape of gases generated during the 5 5 application of the process. .B is a metallic casing, with which is connected in any con- V vement manner the negative electrode B thus constituting the said crucible the oathode of the electric circuit.

A is an electrode, composed, preferably, of carbon, and connected with the ositive pole of the circuit through the flexib e conductor a attached to the bus-bar a, (shown in section,) which, it will be, understood, is supported by any suitable means. The anode A 18, supported in any convenient manner and so as to provide for its movement vertically, as may be requiredas, for instance, supported by the cord a", passing over the pul- 7o leys a a, the said cord and its supports being insulated or constructed of non-conducting material.

The furnace is operated as follows: The

metal tap M being plugged, the charge H is introduced into the crucible in any convenerture in the cover D when the anode A is lifted out of the aperture. The anode A is then moved downward aglain throughsaid 8o aperture. until it attains t e re uisite-proximityto the charge. The current eingturned on asses from the anode through the charge an through the crucible or cathode, and the reqluired temperature is thus developed. It W1 be understood that I do not confine myin the drawing. It will also be understood that the cover D is not in all cases essentlal.

After the desired reactions have been accom- 9o plished the current is discontinued, the slag withdrawn through the slag-ta S'and the molten metal through the meta tap M, the

latter having been unplugged, The slag also may be drawn through the metal tap M, if 5' the bottom of the crucible or hearth, so as to I00 insure the requisite. reduction and liquefaction there at the ince tion of the operation. Into such a furnace l introduce and there support an ascertained quantity of pig-iron containing a determined quantity of carbon. The current is'then turned on and the iron reduced to the molten state. To the molten mass still thus sup orted I add a determined quantity of titan erous iron ore, referably coarsely 'owdered or granulated,t e amount of this a ditionbeing so calculated that the carbon of the ig-iron will reduce the oxide of iron and of titanium completely or only in part to iron and titanium, res ectively, thus securing a roduct which contain very little or suc percentage of carbon as is desired inthe resulting steel and also. some titanium. On the addition of this ore and while the support of the mixture is still continued,

as aforesaid, I increase the tem erature thereof, as .can readily be effected y regulating the intensity of the electric current, until it isbrought to a point suficiently high for the reduction of the oxid of iron and also of the titanic acid by the carbon of the pig iron, or, say, to 3,200 to 3,5o0 Fahrenheit,

or .thereabout, which will result in the decarburiaing of, the iron, and simultaneously the resultin titanium will become incor porated. in t e steel, to which it will impart valuable qualities, and if the ore contaln a high percentage of such titanic acid and the pig-iron sufiiclent carbon a special product to wit, a titanic steelhigh m titanium and well adapted for seasoning other steel free from titaniumwill be obtained. 3

It will be observed that by my said process no carbon is added to reduce the ore and that only the carbon contained in the cast-iron is depended upon for'such reduction. The operatlon is veryrapid, as at the temperature of fusion of cast-iron oxid of iron is readily reduced to the metalllc state by carbon and but little material has to be reduced. One of the advantages of the electric current as applied as aforesaid in the practice of my process is found in the ease with which the tem erature roduced thereby can be control ed and a justed to the different phases of the, operation, being somewhat raised when the iron ore is added cold and lowered as soon-as the reaction has taken lace.

Those skilled in metallurgica arts will have little dificulty in calculating what should be the proportion of the constituents of. the charge in any case, depending upon the r composition. These proportions necessarily vary in each case. Should carbon electrodes be used, some carbonwillprobab be derived from such' electrodes; but in suc cases by adding a slight excess of ore, readily ascertainable by practice, the carbon can be brought down, if esired, within a few hundredths of one per cent. of the quantity.

season first intended. The excess of ore added'not reduced by the carbonof the pig-iron will in such case go into sla", with the gangue of that part of the ore a ded which has proved effective in removing the carbon from the pigpron.

or a further"and complete understanding of my invention I will now give a few examples of the application thereof. In one case the ingredients of my charge were as follows: The pig-iron contained silicon, 0.10 carbon,

3.85; phosphorus, 0.04; sulfur, 0.012; total,

4.002; or, say, ,iron, 96.000; total, 100.00. The iron ore used contained silica, 1.50; t1-

per cent.) 80.00; total, 100.00 I assumed as close enough for practical purposes that the eicghty oxid of iron was ferric oxid. I then a ded fifteen of such ore to a bath of one hundred of the preceding pig'-that is, by weight,

tanic acid, 15.00; alumina, 2.50; magnesia,

1.00 oxid of iron, (iron, fifty-six to fifty-seven 8e to one hundred of pig, silica, 0.225; titanic acid, 2.250 (corresponding to titanium, 1.35 alumina, 0.375; ma nesia, 0.150; oxid of iron, 12.000; (correspon ing to iron, 8.40;) total, 15.000. Hence, as one carbon can reduce 3 333 titanic acid, or one titanic acid requires 0.30 carbon, the 2.25 titanic acld required 2.25 X 0.3 0.67 5 carbon, and the twelve oxid of iron 12 X 0.225 2.700 carbon. In all, 3.375

carbon out of the 3.85 of the pig-iron was thus -to be expected to be theoretically effective, l leaving 0.48 carbon to go in the product, and the steel might be expected to contain: iron from pigiron, 95.00; 11011 from ore reduced,

8.40; titanium from ore reduced, 1.35; vcarbon, (not effective) 0.48; total, l06.23that i's, titanium, 1.27 per cent; carbon, 0.45 per cent. I found actually carbon 0.50 ercent; titanium, 1.20 per cent. Again, wit an IIOD.

ore of the following composition: silica, 2.50;

titanic acid, 36.28; (corresponding to titanium, 21.768;) lime, 1.70; magnesia, 2.32;

alumina, 3.44; oxid ofiron, 53.76.; (corresponding to iron, 37.632 total, 100.00, and taking fifteen of suchore for one hundred of the same i -iron containing 3.85 carbon there shou 'd e e ecteda steel containing, theoretically, titanlum, 3.16; carbon, 0.38;

In short, if titanium is desired in the steel, to

a given amount, the ore added to the bath of pig-iron to decarburize it should be either titaerous ores alone, or a mixture of such ores with non-titaniferous ores, or may be even titanic-acid ore containing but a small percentage of iron, the modus opera'nzii being similar in all cases and as described above.

The titanic-steel roduct resulting from my said process is c aracterizable as beingfusible under substantially the same temper-' ature as steel without titanium content and is therefore exceptionally available for imparting to ordinary steels while molten a desired lesser percentage of titanium.

I am aware that it has been su gested that powdered titaniferous ores, a so titaniferous oxids may be introduced through an air-blast into a body of molten iron in aconverter in such a way as to be carried by the blast forward and upward into the said molten metal, and that thereby the titaniferous oxid may be reduced and titaniferous irons or steels the eby produced. Without admitting the possibility in practice of obtaining such a result by the process described,

it is apparent that the decarburization of the iron by the oxygen of the blast must be so relatively extensive and so comparatively rapid as compared with the reduction of the \said highly-refractory oxid as to exclude the possibility of thereby introducing into the molten iron any substantial amount or more than a trace of titanium, and therefore my 20 claim hereinafter made is not to be understood as covering the aforesaid particular process of introducing the titaniferous oxid y means of an air-'blast.

What I claim as new, and desire to secure by Letters Patent, is the following, viz:

The process of making steel containing more than one per cent. and less than five per cent. of titanium which consists in supporting in an electric furnace an ascertained quantity of molten cast-iron having an ascertained content of carbon and then, without the aid of an air-blast, introducing into said molten castiron so supported a predetermined quantity of oxide of titanium calculated to be sufiicient to decarburize to the required extent the said iron, and then by regulation of the electric current raisin and continuing the temperaturesufficient y high until such decarburizationis effected, and the reduced metallic titanium is incorporated into the resulting steel product.

AUGUSTE J. ROSSI. Witnesses:

WALTER D. EDMONDS, LORA S. AVERY, WALTER DUxoN. 

